Several stars of “Boy Meets World” have expressed a shared opinion: one particular episode stands out as notably weak within the show’s run.
During a recent discussion on their rewatch podcast, “Pod Meets World,” Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle turned their attention to the eighth episode of the sixth season, titled “You’re Married, You’re Dead.” The trio collectively acknowledged it as “arguably the worst” installment in the series.
The storyline revolves around Cory Matthews (Ben Savage), who attempts to demonstrate his continued camaraderie with his male friends by visiting a restaurant reminiscent of Hooters called Cleaváge—all while married to Topanga (Fishel). During this outing, he inadvertently loses his engagement ring.
Rider Strong, portraying Cory’s best friend Shawn, described the episode as feeling disjointed and incomplete. “This episode felt very weird,” he explained.
“It felt like somebody had written a draft of an episode that was very clearly like Topanga is upset that Corey goes to essentially a strip club or Hooters. And then they kind of backed off of that by, like, having Topanga be very understanding.”
He added that the narrative shifts and subsequent dialogue seemed forced, with jokes feeling rushed and ultimately unsatisfying. “Something felt off,” Strong admitted. “It felt like this was a bad tape night for some reason.” While acknowledging certain humorous moments and praising Savage’s performance, he concluded that, overall, “it just didn’t land in certain parts for me.”
Will Friedle, who embodied Cory’s older brother Eric, offered even more pointed criticism.
“This ranks up there with arguably the worst episode for me of the series for every reason.”
Friedle characterized the entire episode as “idiotic,” asserting that his assessment wasn’t overly harsh and demonstrating his understanding of television production: “I know TV. This was not it. This was a bad episode of television all the way around.”
Fishel concurred with her co-stars, suggesting that their limited screen time in the episode might have been due to an awareness of its shortcomings. She also expressed frustration with specific dialogue attributed to her character.
“And I am furious that they put the words, ‘Well, as long as there’s women willing to dance like that, there will be men to see them’ in Topanga’s mouth. How dare you?”
Fishel stated the line directly contradicted Topanga’s established character and criticized the episode’s portrayal of both Topanga and Angela (Trina McGee) disparaging the female dancers.
“Boy Meets World” originally aired on ABC for seven seasons, spanning from 1993 to 2000.
